Ottawa, May 31, 2022 (AFP) – Canada announced Tuesday that it will decriminalize hard drugs in a pilot project aimed at addressing an opioid crisis in British Columbia that has killed thousands of people and is trying to treat drug addiction. imprison drug users for possession.
In response to a request from the state of British Columbia, Federal Minister for Mental Health and Addictions, Carolyn Bennett, said it was waiving an exemption to the law allowing the possession of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamines and other hard drugs for three years.
Adults in the Pacific Coast state cannot be charged or arrested for possession of personal doses of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, and the police cannot confiscate the product.
Instead, users will be informed about how they can access medical help to treat addiction.
“Years of ideological opposition to harm reduction have cost lives,” Bennett said at a press conference announcing the pilot program.
“We’re doing this to save lives, but also to give drug users dignity and decision-making power,” he added, adding that it “will be a model for other jurisdictions in Canada.”
Several cities, including Montreal and Toronto, have expressed their desire to obtain similar exemptions.
The New Democratic Party, a small left-wing faction in parliament, will also present a bill decriminalizing drug possession across the country on Wednesday, but the bill is expected to be defeated on the field.
Thus, British Columbia became the second jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize hard drugs after the US state of Oregon did so in November 2020, offering mitigated results as few people benefited from addiction treatment while policing spending fell.
Between January 2016 and September 2021, 26,690 people died in Canada from opioid overdoses, according to federal government data.
An estimated six people die each day in British Columbia from opioid-related poisonings.
More than 2,200 people died last year, and nearly 9,400 have died since Bonnie Henry, the state’s head of public health, declared it a public health emergency in 2016.
source: Noticias
